Open rates are declining. Click-through rates are pathetic. Your “nurture sequences” are nurturing people right into unsubscribing. And your sales team keeps asking why marketing emails don’t generate any meetings.
But you keep sending more emails, hoping volume will solve what strategy can’t.
73% of B2B marketers use email newsletters in their content strategy, yet less than half of B2B buyers want to be contacted by phone and only 21% like to get voicemails. Email should be your strongest channel, but most B2B email marketing is so bad it’s actively damaging relationships.
The B2B Email Marketing Lies You Tell Yourself
Lie #1: “Our Open Rates Are Above Industry Average”
Industry average B2B email open rates are not great. Being above average in a race to the bottom isn’t an achievement—it’s a participation trophy.
The average open rate for B2B emails is 26.7%, and the click-through rate averages 2.13%. Congratulations, 73% of your audience is ignoring you, and 98% aren’t clicking anything.
Lie #2: “We’re Building Relationships Through Email”
No, there’s a higher potential that you’re building resentment or at best, indifference. Most B2B email sequences are designed to benefit the sender, not the recipient. You’re not building relationships—you’re extracting attention and giving nothing valuable in return.
Lie #3: “Email Marketing is Cheap and Easy”
Email marketing is cheap to execute poorly. It’s expensive to execute well. The “easy” automation sequences everyone uses are exactly why nobody pays attention to B2B emails anymore.
Why Your B2B Emails Are Getting Deleted Immediately
Problem #1: You’re Solving Your Problems, Not Theirs
Most B2B email marketing is designed to move prospects through your sales funnel rather than help them solve their business problems.
“Want to learn more about our solution?” No, they don’t.
“Ready to schedule a demo?” No, they’re not.
“Download our case study!” Why would they?
You’re asking for things instead of providing value.
Problem #2: You’re Writing for Everyone and No One
But most B2B emails try to be relevant to everyone simultaneously. The result is emails that feel generic to everyone and valuable to nobody.
Problem #3: You’re Automating Relationships
The best B2B email marketing feels personal and timely. The worst feels like automated spam. Most B2B marketers have automated so much that their emails feel like they were written by robots for robots.
What Actually Works: The B2B Email Evolution Framework
Evolution Stage 1: From Broadcasting to Conversing
Stop thinking about email as a broadcast medium. Think about it as a conversation medium.
Instead of: “Here’s our monthly newsletter with updates about our company.” Try: “Here’s what we’re seeing in your industry and why it matters to your Q2 planning.”
Evolution Stage 2: From Sequences to Scenarios
Stop building linear email sequences that assume everyone follows the same path. Build scenario-based email journeys that adapt to behavior and engagement.
Behavior-Triggered Scenarios:
- Downloaded pricing guide → ROI-focused email series
- Visited competitor pages → Differentiation-focused content
- Attended webinar → Deep-dive educational series
- Multiple team members engaged → Buying group-specific content
Evolution Stage 3: From Generic to Contextual
Hyper-personalization and segmentation are essential for engaging B2B audiences in 2025.
This doesn’t mean mail merge personalization. It means contextual relevance based on:
- Industry-specific challenges
- Company size-appropriate solutions
- Role-specific value propositions
- Timing-based messaging
The B2B Email Technologies That Actually Matter
Advanced Segmentation Platforms
Tools that go beyond basic demographics to segment based on behavior, engagement, and intent signals.
Dynamic Content Engines
Systems that change email content based on recipient data without creating dozens of separate email versions.
Conversation Intelligence Integration
Platforms that use insights from sales conversations to personalize email follow-up and nurture sequences.
Multi-Channel Orchestration
Tools that coordinate email marketing with social media, advertising, and sales outreach for consistent messaging.
🎁 FREE TOOLKIT: “The B2B Email Marketing Audit Toolkit”
Transform your email marketing from ignored to indispensable:
- Email performance diagnostic checklist
- Engagement optimization templates
- Segmentation strategy framework
- A/B testing protocol for B2B emails
Your 8-Week B2B Email Marketing Transformation
Weeks 1-2: Audience Intelligence
- Analyze current email performance by segment and content type
- Survey subscribers about content preferences and frequency
- Map email touchpoints to actual customer journey stages
Weeks 3-4: Content Strategy Overhaul
- Create value-first email templates for each journey stage
- Develop behavior-triggered email scenarios
- Build industry and role-specific content tracks
Weeks 5-6: Technical Implementation
- Set up advanced segmentation and automation workflows
- Implement dynamic content capabilities
- Integrate email platform with CRM and sales tools
Weeks 7-8: Testing and Optimization
- Launch A/B tests for subject lines, content, and sending times
- Monitor engagement metrics and unsubscribe patterns
- Refine segmentation and personalization based on performance
The Email Marketing Metrics That Actually Predict Revenue
Vanity Metrics (That Don’t Matter):
- Open rates
- Total subscriber count
- Email sends per month
- List growth rate
Business Metrics (That Drive Growth):
- Email-to-meeting conversion rate
- Pipeline generated per email sent
- Customer lifetime value by email segment
- Revenue per recipient
The Hard Questions About Your Email Marketing
About Your Content Strategy:
“If our prospects could only receive three emails from us per year, what would we send them?”
About Your Segmentation:
“Are we segmenting based on what’s convenient for us or what’s valuable for them?”
About Your Results:
“Can we trace specific revenue back to specific email campaigns, or are we just measuring activity?”
The Uncomfortable Truth About B2B Email Marketing
Most B2B email marketing fails because it’s optimized for the sender’s convenience instead of the recipient’s value.
You’re prioritizing your need to communicate over their need to receive relevant, timely, useful information.
The future of B2B email marketing isn’t about sending better mass emails. It’s about creating personal, valuable, contextual communications that people actually want to receive.
Stop sending emails to generate leads. Start sending emails to create value.
Marissa Homere 